1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an operation management device for performing operation management for a moving object by, for example, detecting a behavior (movement) of the moving object, a portable information terminal that works in conjunction with the operation management device, and a computer program for causing a computer device to have an operation management function. Here, the “moving object” represents a vehicle, a two-wheeler, a vessel, an aircraft, or the like, and the “operation management” is to detect a behavior caused by the moving object in operation, analyze operation information, perform various settings for obtaining the operation information, and process contents of other information regarding the operation.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is known a drive recorder for collecting operation information generated by a vehicle being driven and analyzing contents of the collected operation information. The operation information collected by the drive recorder includes, for example, angular velocity data on roll, pitch, and yaw, two-dimensional or three-dimensional acceleration data, global positioning system (GPS) data indicating the latitude, longitude, speed, and azimuth, and vehicle speed data obtained by receiving an input of a vehicle speed pulse from a vehicle measuring instrument.
By analyzing such operation information, it is possible to identify an accident cause of a traffic accident that has occurred and to grasp a manipulation tendency exhibited by a driver in manipulation of the vehicle, for example, a repeated habit specific to the driver such as performing abrupt acceleration often, being slow to start braking, or being likely to cause a wobble, and it is also possible to prompt the driver for safe driving.
However, a measuring instrument for measuring the operation information with a high accuracy is necessary in order to enhance reliability in identifying the accident cause and grasping the manipulation tendency for the vehicle, and hence a dedicated drive recorder becomes expensive. Further, an analysis of the operation information collected by the drive recorder is performed by using a personal computer, which is therefore inconvenient for a general user.
Against this backdrop, recent years have seen the advent of a portable information terminal including an information processor in which a sensor such as an accelerometer is mounted and the same function as the drive recorder is realized by software.
For example, a portable information terminal disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-300150, which has a video recording function, is mounted to a dedicated cradle and kept in a recording state at all times, and when an impact of a traffic accident that occurs suddenly is sensed by a sensor, records a video image for a predetermined time before and after the occurrence of the impact. This contributes to clarification of the accident cause and decision in insurance negotiation.
Further, a drive recorder disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-238214 includes: a data collecting section for continually collecting driving condition data on a vehicle; a storage section for storing the driving condition data in a nonvolatile manner; a communication section for performing mutual communications with a portable information terminal with or without cable; and a control section for comprehensively controlling those functional sections, and the control section transmits/receives the driving condition data and operation setting data to/from the portable information terminal. With this configuration, various settings to be performed on the drive recorder are facilitated, and the driving condition data is viewed on a display of the portable information terminal or transmitted to a predetermined server as it is by using a communication function, thereby realizing a highly-convenient drive recorder.
Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2007-300150 includes no description about a sensor, but a portable information terminal of this kind is normally used by being manipulated by a human. Therefore, even if the sensor is to be provided, a simple sensor with low sensitivity such as an accelerometer is used in general. This leaves a problem that even if the portable information terminal is secured to a vehicle via the dedicated cradle, operation information having sufficient accuracy cannot be collected, which is not enough to identify the accident cause or grasp a manipulation tendency exhibited by a driver in manipulation of the vehicle.
Further, the drive recorder disclosed in Japanese Patent Application Laid-open No. 2010-238214 collects operation conditions of the vehicle and uses only the communication function and the display provided to the portable information terminal, which leave a problem of not contributing to cost reduction of the drive recorder itself.